Parks Board Blasts Decision To Pave

July 3, 1985|By Barbara Stewart of The Sentinel Staff

MOUNT DORA — The city council's recent decision to construct 38 diagonal parking spaces along Donnelly Park -- which will cut 3 feet into one side of the property -- was hasty and ill-advised, parks commission members said at a meeting Monday night. The council should study the issue more thoroughly and should not have approved such plans without consulting them, they said.

Mayor Bill Boyd said later that the council heard the same objections at its regular meeting two weeks ago and had voted to go ahead with the project. The council will listen to the opinions of the parks board, but it is under no obligation to oblige them with its decisions, Boyd said.

Council member Elouise Carmody, however, said the council should pay more attention to the park board's recommendations because they reflect the views of many residents.

For city council and parks board members alike, the debate on parking spaces along Donnelly Park has brought to light a broader question: What exactly are the responsibilities of the parks board?

According to the city charter, parks board members have the power to develop, beautify and preserve the city's parks. It is a vague job description and can cause confusion, said City Manager Tony Segreto.

Council member Peggy Curtis, liasion to the parks board, said a new ordinance that is explicit on its duties, should be considered by the council. Curtis said the board's dogged battle with the council on the parking space issue has been counterproductive. Parks board members often miss their own meetings, she said, and rarely do they take the time to sit in on regular city council meetings or check city hall for public information that affects parks. The board is useful when it pays closer attention to such details of the city's parks, such as shade trees, flower beds and benches, she said.

In the Donnelly Park parking space fracas, few members had the facts straight, Curtis said. Some thought that council planned to move war monuments and slice at least 20 or 30 feet from the park. Board member May Radcliffe said she felt the parking spaces were part of council's larger plan to do away entirely with Donnelly Park.

Segreto said that is incorrect.

The council has been unusually supportive of parks, he said, and members have voted several times to set aside land that could could bring handsome profits for city parks. One example is the Palm Island park, which will soon be developed. The land, worth $360,000, will instead be preserved as a wildlife park that include a catwalk so strollers can enjoy the thick foliage. With the friction that has recently developed between the parks board and the city council, it seems timely for the council to more clearly define the board's duties, the council members said.

''They seem to think they have been given powers that are more broad than those the city attorney has given us,'' said Boyd. The responsibilities of the parks board would likely be defined more clearly in future council meetings, he said.